GO ASK ALICE

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous.

Published: Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

Described as the “definitive book on the horrors of addiction”, Go Ask Alice tells the story of Alice, a 15-year-old girl from a secure middle class family who is given an LSD-lace drink at a party and begins a downward decent into heroin addiction and prostitution. It is written in a diary format.
In the beginning Alice -- a lonely, awkward adolescent -- writes in her diary faithfully every day. Her tone is optimistic and despairing, as she desperately tries to deal with the pressure she feels from her “perfect parents”. Once she’s in the grips of her drug addiction and a life on the streets, Alice writes less frequently and in a hazy and confused manner which serves to illustrate loss of innocence. The book itself, attributed to ‘Anonymous’ is now widely accepted to be the work of Beatrice Sparks, an American therapist and Mormon youth counselor.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Novelist

Annotation: Goodreads and Amazon

THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE

The Education Of Little Tree by Forrest Carter.

Published: New York: Delacorte Press/E. Friede 1976

Set in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee during the Great Depression, The education of Little Tree was purported to be the memoir an orphaned young boy, raised by his grandparents in the Native American Cherokee way of life. His idyllic childhood is soon shattered when he’s taken away by whites to an orphanage where he suffers beatings and racial taunts. The authenticity of the book was called into question when it was revealed that Forrest Carter was actually Asa Earl Carter, a strong segregationist and suspected member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Novelist.

Annotation: Novelist, Fantastic Fiction, MagillOnLiterature Plus, Amazon.

MISHA: A MEMOIRE OF THE HOLOCAUST YEARS

Misha: A Mémoire Of The Holocaust Years by Misha Defonseca.

Published : Massachusetts: Mt. Ivy Press, 1997.

Fraudulently published as a memoir by author Misha Defonseca -- real name, Monique de Wael -- Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years tells the story of Misha, an 7 year-old Jewish girl from Brussels as she searches for her parents who have been taken by the Nazis. Walking thousands of miles to find them, she survives by stealing food, pilfering crops, hiding in the forest and eventually befriends a pack of wolves. Full of passion, terror and courage, the book has been compared to The diary of Anne Frank.

Sources

Cover image: Amazon

Citation: Amazon

Annotation: Goodreads, Amazon

THE HAND THAT SIGNED THE PAPER

The Hand That Signed The Paper by Helen Demidenko.

Published: St. Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin 1994.

Australian author, Helen Demidenko -- real name Helen Darville - won the prestigious Miles Franklin prize for this novel, which was later found to be hoax. The book is told from the point of view of Ukrainian peasant Kateryna.  She along with brothers Vitali and Evheny witness the destruction of the family’s village by Stalinist communists during World War II and side with the Nazis who they hail as liberators. Demidenko who had claimed to be of Ukrainian background later recanted this and the claim that she had based the book on her family's history.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: Novelist

Annotation: Goodreads, Literature resource centre, Fantastic Fiction and Amazon

A MILLION LITTLE PIECES

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.

Published: London : John Murray, 2003.

A Million Little Pieces is a bleak and compelling autobiographical novel which recounts 23-year-old Frey’s attempts to kick a severe drug and alcohol addiction in Hazelden, a rehabilitation clinic in Chicago. His account of the agonizing six weeks of detox is harrowing in its descriptive flashbacks to the rage-fuelled binges that led to rehab.  Frey’s writing style, described as “literary fireworks” is punctuated by short sentences and wild paragraph breaks, all of which create a surreal experience. Frey’s book was later exposed as fraudulent after investigators discovered that certain elements were greatly exaggerated.

Sources

Cover image: Goodreads

Citation: UTS Library catalogue

Annotation: Novelist, Goodreads and Amazon